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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 3 May 2022.
Liferay PortalApplication · Liferay

CVE-2020-7961

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-03-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Liferay Portal prior to 7.2.1 CE GA2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via JSON web services (JSONWS).

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

This is a critical deserialization vulnerability in Liferay Portal's JSONWS API that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by sending specially crafted serialized Java objects. The flaw exists in versions prior to 7.2.1 CE GA2 and is exploitable without authentication.

MitigationUpgrade to LIfeRay Portal 7.2.1 CE GA2 or later. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, disable or restrict access to the JSONWS API as a temporary workaround.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Liferay PortalApplication
Affected:< 7.2.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Lifer Portal version
    Locate the portal's version information in the control panel under Server > Server Information, or check the portal-ext.properties file for the version property
    Affected if version is shown as below 7.2.1 CE GA2 or any version prior to 7.2.1
  2. Check if JSONWS API is exposed
    Attempt to access the /jsonws endpoint on your portal server (e.g., https://yourserver.com/jsonws) without authentication
    Affected if the JSONWS endpoint returns a response rather than a 403/404 error, indicating it is accessible
  3. Verify JSONWS deserialization is enabled
    Inspect the portal's web.xml or portal-ext.properties for JSONWS servlet configuration and ensure the jsonws servlet is mapped and active
    Affected if the JSONWS servlet is enabled and mapped to /jsonws or /api/jsonws paths
  4. Confirm no authentication requirement on JSONWS
    Review the portal's JSONWS security configuration or try invoking a JSONWS method without providing any authentication token
    Affected if JSONWS methods can be invoked without requiring user authentication

You are affected if your Lifer Portal version is prior to 7.2.1 CE GA2 AND the JSONWS API endpoint is accessible without authentication.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.2.1 or later
Fixed in 7.2.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to LIfeRay Portal 7.2.1 CE GA2 or later. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, disable or restrict access to the JSONWS API as a temporary workaround.

Recommended fix High confidence

LPortal 7.2.1 CE GA2 or later (7.3.x recommended if compatible)

  1. 1. Back up the current LPortal installation, database, and configuration files before proceeding
  2. 2. Review the official LPortal 7.2.1 upgrade documentation for migration requirements
  3. 3. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment to identify any compatibility issues
  4. 4. Upgrade LPortal to version 7.2.1 CE GA2 or later
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify that JSONWS API access is properly restricted through LPortal's control panel
  6. 6. Restart the LPortal application server to ensure all components load with the updated version
  7. 7. Validate the fix by confirming LPortal version displays 7.2.1 GA2 or higher in the control panel
Caveat LPortal major version upgrades may introduce breaking changes to custom portlets, themes, and workflows; thoroughly test all customizations in non-production first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Liferay Portal Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing16.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
48.0 hours of engineering $8,320
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-7961 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data